Long Live the Polish Moon Ride!

 

I’m over the moon about the positive response to our inaugural Polish Moon Ride. We had 376 people on the ride according to Cycling Hall of Famer Tom Schuler, who did a manual count on the ride from front to back. It was particularly gratifying to see so many families with kids.  It seemed like the people who came in from out of town were overwhelmed by how cool it was to ride these historic urban streets at night and get cheered by residents as we pedaled past with live accordion music. One rider who came in from Sun Prairie told me three times that he does lots of great organized rides each year, but this is the one he’s going to bring lots of friends to next year.

Our string of blinking riders stretched an impressive half a mile through the foggy streets. Milwaukee Police provided amazing support for the ride. With motorcycles leading and following the group and blocking intersections when needed, even parents with small children riding felt safe enough to let their kids ride down the middle of major streets at night. That is an experience most kids never have. I think this is a first for everyone if you throw in the accordionist Don Turner who kept everyone entertained from the back of a Bionix assist Xtracycle piloted by Tristan Klein of Coast In Bikes.

We kept the group together by moving at a slow pace and stopping at red lights to let people “mass up.” It was 9pm by the time the group got to Chavez and National, so I cut the route short and we headed over the viaduct and down the ramp at Emmber Lane to get us back to the block party on schedule at 9:30. Even though it caused a bit of a traffic jam on the Hank Aaron State Trail, we took the path so everyone could ride down the cool new ramps off the 6th Street Bridge. It was really beautiful on this atmospheric foggy night.

Once back at the start/finish location, people turned their bikes over to Coast In Bikes at the valet bike parking with Saris racks purchased by Eppstein Uhen Architects and donated to the Bike Fed. Then off to listen to the Polish Moon Polka Trio inside Anodyne Coffee, where they played the perfect mix of traditional polka and polka takes on modern, fun-to-dance to tunes. Although the combo was put together just for tonight, they got enough requests for business cards that I’m sure you will be able to hire them for your next party.

The only negatives were two cars broken into and one bike stolen later from a nearby restaurant. I personally chased the burglar away when I saw him leaning into a car with a broken window right around the corner from Anodyne around 10pm. I couldn’t catch him because he jumped into a get-away car, but I called the police and flagged down a passing squad whose officers stopped to help and take down all the information. The bike was stolen from outside at Braise restaurant down the street, where thieves cut the inexpensive cable lock. While that was very disappointing for the people victimized, we can easily address those security issues next year.

So what about next year? As successful as this year was, we learned a number of things that will help us make next year even better.

The date: We all like the late summer date because it falls after most other charity rides and after the road racing season. We promise, though, the ride will not conflict with Fiesta Mexicana next year. I am thinking of locking down Friday, Aug. 14th, 2015.

The route: With the shortcut we took this year, participants pedaled 8 miles in an hour and a half, which seemed just right given the number of people with kids. I think we will keep the route the same or allow a split so some people can go the longer route and others the shorter route.

The time: We are considering starting the ride at 7:30 pm instead of 8 pm and starting the block party at 5 pm instead of 6 pm. Moving the time up will mean starting at dusk instead of dark, but still gives everyone plenty of night riding time, while getting families with kids back at 9 pm. The other bonus is it leaves more time to party after and maybe even have two bands or an earlier ride to Kochanski’s Concertina Beer Hall for polka there.

The music: I promise I will have a Mexican Norteno or polka band next year in addition to the Polish Moon Polka Trio, who we hope will come back if we can still afford them. We also need more accordions on the ride. I could imagine 4 accordion players on the ride given how long the group is.

Capped registration: While this is a fundraiser for the Bike Fed, I want to keep the emphasis on the fun, not the funds. Keeping the group at a size that can stick together and the police can easily support is more important than maximizing revenue with as many riders as we can get. The police support was amazing, but the group stretched out about a third of a mile with 376 riders. I talked to the officers about a bigger group next year and they thought they could handle more, but I think we will cap the ride at 450 or 500 and see how that goes. Given the instant popularity of the ride, we will probably first offer priority registration to Bike Fed members and residents, then allow non-members.

Community involvement: During the process of organizing this ride, we made a number of closer relationships with community groups. We also got promises of increased support from Alderman José Pérez’s office and State Representative JoCasta Zamarripa to help us increase community involvement. I would also like to reach out to the staff, students and parents at Bradley Tech to encourage them to get involved as a back-to-school event. We are also meeting with the organizers from the Southside Bicycle Day to coordinate with them. Since their successful event is during the day and in June, we might help them get a similar daytime version of our ride going. Rather than try to combine the two events and move dates, we will just support each other and do some cross promotion to make both rides better.

Additional Business Involvement: I would love to create a coupon book that people get with registration, sort of like the cool City Tins, but maybe bicycle tires. I could see having coupons from 20 or more businesses, as there are so many cool places I want to promote on Milwaukee’s near South Side. Walkers Point alone has such a fast growing list of great new places to eat and drink than I can hardly keep up. It would also be really nice to get Rockwell involved. I was hoping they might offer a limited number of visits to their clock tower so we could add that at a VIP registration level, but this year they said no. Maybe the success we had this year will convince the folks at Rockwell to get involved, even though they already provide a lot of support for Bradley Tech, the high school in the neighborhood.

And let me know in the comments below if you have any suggestions on how we can improve the ride next year.